Chilling precedent? InfoWars block exposes Big Tech as no friend of free speech (RT.COM, Aug 7)
Excellent OpEd! Kudos to Nebojsa Malic, RT! Your piece says almost exactly the same thing I wrote in my August 1997 Washington Times editorial DANCING ‘ROUND THE GOLDEN CALF (originally titled “Dumbing Down of America”). Here’s the opening: “Our country’s traditional character is being systematically destroyed by nihilistic ‘liberals,’ the New World Order’s centurions whose only God is the Almighty Dollar. It is a multi-pronged process carried out by the Wall Street elite and their vassals in government, education, media and the entertainment industry.”
It is for this very reason that I canceled my Facebook and Twitter accounts last year. If all of us BOYCOTTED them, their censorship would be IRRELEVANT.
REPUBLISHED ON AUG 7, 2018 FROM MY OTHER WEBSITE
Feb 3, 2018
I quit! J’arrête! Lo dejo! Уходить в отставку!
So that’s it. I am quitting Facebook. Ironically, it’s happening a few hours after they had released me from my latest stint in the FB jail. Oh well, at least now more people will find out that I quit and why.
Nine (9) years and three (3) months has been a good ride. I learned a lot. But now it’s time to forget and move on.
NOT ALL “FRIENDS” ARE EQUAL
One thing I learned is that a Facebook “friend” is not necessarily the same as a real life friend. Here’s why not…
As of right now, Feb 3, 2018, I supposedly have 4,630 FB “friends.” Guess how many bother to reply to my yesterday’s “QUIT FACEBOOK?” post as of this morning?
Three (3) directly. And three (3) through various groups I had founded for a total of six (6). Six out of 4,630! That’s 0.13%. In other words, only one (1) out of 772 of my DB “friends” cares whether or not I stay or go.
And I am not even counting here the 25,656 “friends” I have in the three groups I manage who also had a chance to see my yesterday’s post.
APATHY AND INDIFFERENCE REIGN
So what does that say? To me, it says, that APATHY and INDIFFERENCE reign supreme on Facebook as they do elsewhere in America (see my Nov 2014 election column – DISGUST & APATHY: BIG WINNERS IN 2014 ELECTIONS).
Freedom, including the freedom of speech, is disappearing in America faster than a piece of cheese in a rat’s mouth. The US Constitution has become a dead letter, something that both our government and large corporations can trample at will.
Yet, most people just shrug and carry on. Hoping for miracles? Or just that “crocodile would eat them last?” as Winston Churchill put it in reference to Hitler appeasers in 1938.
IF ALL OF US QUIT, FACEBOOK WOULD STARVE
As you saw from my yesterday’s post, I have been teeter-tottering on the decision to leave FB for over 4 years now. I was hoping things might get better. Instead, they’ve gotten worse. FB is abusing the trust of its customers. No wonder 60% of Facebook users are spending LESS time now “socializing” on it.
There is one absolute right every customer has: LEAVE. The right to QUIT. And the only thing businesses like FB react to is a loss of user base. Trust me on that. When I ran my own business, I used to consult for top executives of major multinational computer companies.
I am not frustrated or angry. Just pragmatic in how and where I want to spend my time. FB is not the only game in town. So why should I waste my time and emotional and intellectual capital on a platform which will eventually self-destruct and collapse?
I QUIT TWITTER IN 2016! WILL YOU JOIN ME?
I never did like Twitter. Maybe it was because it was meant for people who can only put one or two sentences together (140 character limit). [SNIP – I had just reached that Twitter limit]
Or maybe it was because Hollywood and the Washington politicians loved it. (Back to speaking in sound bites).
But when I really started to hate it to the point of deleting my Twitter account was when I realized that Twitter is just the tool of the New World Order “elite.” In March of 2016, they censored some of my posts (see TWITTER CENSORSHIP – https://www.facebook.com/groups/truthinmedia.org/permalink/834223520057596/). And in July 2016, Twitter tried to suppress the Wikileaks release of the damning DNC/Hillary emails (among other LAMESTREAM MEDIA, MAJOR INTERNET COMPANIES, COLLUDE TO SUPPRESS THE NEWS OF DNC TRYING TO RIG DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES IN HILLARY’S FAVOR – https://www.facebook.com/groups/439921809487771/).
So after the election was over, and Twitter and all the lamestream media were totally discredited, I quit Twitter and closed my account. I invite you to do the same. Because now you have yet another big reason to do it.
FOR THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT FREEDOM AND TRUTH, LET’S STAY IN TOUCH… VIA OTHER UNFILTERED AND UNCENSORED CHANNELS
To those of you who care about FREEDOM and TRUTH, I say, THANK YOU for your support over the years. Let’s stay in touch. FB is not the only game in town. There are other channels available for me to broadcast the truth. Just as I had been doing for decades before FB was even around.So here are my websites to which you can subscribe.
Just click on the FOLLOW button at the bottom right corner of each home page:
TRUTH IN MEDIA – geopolitical news and analysis: http://truthinmedia.net
Hope to hear from you again at one or all of my above websites. You can submit your comments there just as you could on FB. But WITHOUT CENSORSHIP.
Bye, bye… and good luck!
Bob
FEB 2, 2018
QUIT FACEBOOK? Is it time to hang it up after almost 10 years?
Four signs I have received in last 3 days that it may be time to jump off his bad habit called Facebook: What do you think?
I have been a Facebook user since Nov 2008. But I never really used it until July 2012, when my spirit guides suggested I give it a try. Now I feel I am getting signs from them that I need to get off this bad habit that Facebook has become.
1. The first hints came from Facebook itself. Since late November, I seem to be spending more time in the FB jail for no good reason that I know. Except that someone somewhere in Facebookland doesn’t like my posts and opinions.
And willy-nilly, without any explanation, this PUBLIC (!) company decides to violate my right of free speech under the First Amendment. I find that unacceptable in the US of A.
2. Second, on Jan 31, I was guided by my spirit guides to post this commentary – about the declining business at Twitter and Facebook. Evidently, many other people are starting to feel the same way. https://www.facebook.com/bob.djurdjevic/posts/10212790825020362
3. Third, just today, Feb 2, a post came up from four years ago when I finished my month of voluntary silence. It was the second time in just over a year that I had done something like that: Turned off most of my man-made technology.
BREAKING THE SILENCE: MAN-MADE TECHNOLOGY SUCKS… …SUCKING OUT OUR FREEDOM AND PRIVACY – For more, see… https://wp.me/p1jFeo-uO.
“Will you join me in this “silent revolution”? – I asked at the end of that 2014 editorial.
Alas, I did not heed my own recommendation. The US-engineered coup in Ukraine later that month in 2014 suck me back into geopolitical reporting and analysis. Just like when I worked as a war correspondent for over a decade in the 1990s.
And starting with that coup, things went from bad to worse… in this country and around the world. So I hung in there with developing news.
4. Fourth, I just saw this guest post by Mary about what happened when she quit Facebook in 2015. In word, NOTHING BAD. She can only cite GOOD experiences as a result.
Check out what she said:
“Last month, I made the decision to say goodbye to my personal Facebook account. It was a decision that was in the back of my mind for a while. I took the plunge on May 6, 2015.
Since then, I’ve learned five important lessons.
1. I Don’t Have As Many Friends As I Thought
One my personal Facebook page, I had hundreds of “friends”. Once I said goodbye to my account, only a handful of them stayed in contact with me.
My birthday was less than two weeks after I made the decision to quit Facebook. In the previous years, most everyone on my friends list posted “happy birthday” to me.
Guess how many thought to call or text me? FIVE.
Most of them were family… which leads me to the next lesson.
2. I Don’t Care
Learning lesson one taught me lesson two. I don’t care about the lack of communication from my former Facebook “friends”.
The true friendships that I have are even more precious to me before. I value the few close friends I have more than I ever valued the fake ones I thought I had.
3. I Have More Free Time
I am amazed at how much time I really do have in a day. I knew I spent a good bit of time on Facebook, but I had no clue exactly how much.
I no longer feel the need to check my feed because I’m bored or out of habit. Instead, I use that time to do something productive or something I really enjoy.
4. I Am Happier
Let’s face it. Facebook is FULL of negativity… and I don’t want that in my life.
I am not the type of person who can just forget about something. So, when I would see a troubling post/picture, it would stay with me for days. I don’t want to focus on negativity in my life. I want to embrace the positive.
Since quitting Facebook, I am happier.
5. I Don’t Feel “Left Out”
I honestly thought that I would feel left out of the loop since quitting Facebook. I’ve found that I don’t. My friends and family inform me of any pertinent information I need to know.
Bonus Lesson #6: My Phone Battery Lasts Longer
It’s amazing how long a phone battery lasts when you are not constantly checking for updates and messages! – http://moneysavingmom.com/2015/06/5-lessons-i-learned-after-quitting-facebook.html
UPDATE APRIL 11, 2018
Facebook / Zuckerberg tells Senate hearing ‘we will fight election meddling’ |
Isn’t that also “election meddling?”
I thought the social media have duty to stay out of the political fray and defend everyone’s right to free speech.
But maybe that was in another America, in another century.
For more on FB’s own meddling, check out my “I QUIT” editorial (Feb 3, 2018)
UPDATE 2 – APR 11, 2018
FIX FAKEBOOK – 100 ZUCKERBERG CUTOUTS ON CAPITOL HILL
As Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg testified on Capitol Hill for the first time, an unnerving sight greeted visitors outside: an “army” of 100 life-sized cutouts of the CEO.
The display was meant to protest “disinformation” ahead of the tech giant’s congressional hearing. The campaign organized by Avaaz, a global activist group, featured 100 cutouts of Zuckerberg wearing a t-shirt that said “fix Fakebook.”
For more, see… ‘Army’ of 100 Zuckerberg cutouts protests Facebook CEO on Capitol Hill https://fxn.ws/2qnQx97
UPDATE AUG 8, 2018
Further on the Truth in Media story I HAD QUIT (FB, Twitter) OVER CENSORSHIP; INFOWARS NOW BLOCKED (Aug 7)
“At a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” (George Orwell)
A 25-year veteran of the US House of Representatives and a former presidential candidate, Ron Paul, echoed today in his own words the above famous George Orwell sentiment.
‘Truth is treason in empire of lies’: Ron Paul on Big Tech censorship
After the executive director of the Ron Paul Institute got suspended on Twitter, the former congressman from Texas told RT that social media crackdowns are part of a broader effort to silence dissent in the US.
While social media could be a “real delight” and very informative, the biggest role social networks are playing is “working with the government,” Ron Paul told RT on Tuesday. The government is indirectly regulating speech through companies like Twitter and Facebook, he added.
“You get accused of treasonous activity and treasonous speech because in an empire of lies the truth is treason,” Paul said. “Challenging the status quo is what they can’t stand and it unnerves them, so they have to silence people.”
Paul served in the House of Representatives for over 25 years before retiring in 2013 and setting up the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. The institute’s executive director, Daniel McAdams, found himself suspended from Twitter on Monday, apparently for retweeting a comment by radio show host Scott Horton.
Horton, who is also the editorial director of Antiwar.com, was suspended for criticizing journalist Jonathan M. Katz, after Katz complained to Twitter and got former former State Department employee and author Peter Van Buren banned from the platform.
“I’m just hoping that technology can stay ahead of it all and that we can have real alternatives to the dependency on Twitter and other companies that have been working hand in glove with the government,” Paul told RT.
“And if we, some of us, tell the truth about our government, they call us treasonous and say we’re speaking out of line and they’d like to punish us, and I think that’s part of what’s happening with social media,” he added.
Also, see… RON PAUL SPEAKS OUT: HAS US LIED ABOUT MH-17 TO JUSTIFY CONFRONTATION WITH RUSSIA? (Aug 12, 2014)
UPDATE AUG 13, 2018
Social media censorship blowback
The blowback from attempting to stifle ideas and speech has a long history, matched only by the history people have failed to learn from.
Infowars’ Alex Jones claims 5.6 million extra subscribers since being censored, so did he win?
In the battle to have Alex Jones and Infowars purged from social media, it’s not obvious who won. Jones’ critics are celebrating because he’s been deplatformed, while he claims to have 5.6 million extra subscribers as a result.
Jones and his right-wing conspiracy platform, Infowars, have been wiped off YouTube, Facebook, Apple, LinkedIn, Spotify, Stitcher, and Pinterest, among others. The big beasts of social media who constantly insist they are independent, appeared to work in a coordinated way to censor the bizarre but undeniably popular conspiracy theorist.
“Infowars has had the highest traffic it’s ever had – 5.6 million new subscribers in the past 48 hours – and so has my radio show,”Jones told the Daily Mail, referring to his newsletter and podcast.
That claim means over 5 million extra subscribers, in just a matter of days, may have signed up to watch him and his Infowars organisation deliver their little nuggets of hate and conspiracy. Not exactly the outcome the would-be censors were looking for. The blowback from attempting to stifle ideas and speech has a long history, matched only by the history of people failing to learn from it.
Social media platforms risk creating the right-wing answer to Star Wars’ Obi Wan Kenobi: strike him down and he will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
There have been a range of high profile voices warning against censoring Jones who, while widely-watched, appears to the majority like little more than a vicious but comic figure screaming red-faced diatribes.
Jordan Peterson, the highly-popular Canadian psychology professor who is himself often the target of the political left, commented on Twitter about the Jones case saying: “never persecute someone paranoid, lest you justify his paranoia.”
For more, see… https://on.rt.com/9c27
TRUTH IN MEDIA: TRUTH TRUMPS POWER EVERY TIME! 
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